Malaysia targets USD 15 billion bilateral trade with India by 2020

Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Bin Tun Abdul Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia in his recent meeting with President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi expressed his desire to touch USD 15 billion bilateral trade with India by 2020. “The two countries can collaborate in a wide variety of fields. Malaysia would like to achieve target of USD 15 billion bilateral trade by 2020,” the Malaysian PM said.

Currently, bilateral trade between Malaysia and India stood at USS12.8 billion in 2015-16, as against USD 16.9 billion in 2014-15. And, presently Malaysia remains to be India’s third largest trading partner in ASEAN region.

According to Mr Mukherjee, commercial and investment relations have become the mainstay of India-Malaysia relations. “There is also considerable potential for collaboration in defence production especially under the Make in India initiative,” he pointed out.

The two countries have taken their strategic partnership forward, particularly after the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Malaysia in November 2015. The Malaysian Prime Minister’s visit comes at a time when India and Malaysia are celebrating the 60th anniversary of India-Malaysia diplomatic relations.